Charity thrilled at a very note-worthy celebration

A REDDITCH based charity is celebrating after it was announced their founder would be commemorated on a new £5 coin next year - marking the 100th anniversary of her death.

First World War heroine Edith Cavell’s memory will be honoured following a national campaign which attracted more than 110,000 supporters.

Her care helped many soldiers before she was executed for treason in German-occupied Belgium in October 1915, aged 49.

The Cavell Nurses’ Trust, based on Prospect Hill, is the UK’s largest nursing charity, helping nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants who have fallen on hard times.

Chief executive Kate Tompkins said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the decision taken by The Royal Mint to include Edith Cavell in the set of commemorative coins in the centenary year of her death.

“She really deserves to be remembered in this way as she was the ultimate heroine from a nursing perspective during the First World War. She gave her life for others.

“Her famous instructions to her nurses to care for every soldier, regardless of nationality, that they were somebody’s son, husband or father, shows the true extent of her care and compassion and her legacy is far reaching, through the nurses she trained and the descendants of the Allied soldiers whose lives she saved. She had a profound impact on history.”